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Be Creative

The Basic Elements of Design

Being Creative And Developing Your Own Design

By: Mary Williams

Some people have been born with a gift of knowing creative design principles. Others, maybe you included, have to struggle to develop even the tiniest creative skills they do have.

One thing for certain, is that you can learn to be more creative. And you can discover the creative design ideas that other artists use for inspiration, even if you were not born with a single creative bone in your body.

You have to make a decision whether you want to begin to learn the creative design process as there are several principles of design. These principles give an over-riding basis to how your design elements will interact with one another in your artwork and your designs.

Each one influences the other in an endless tug-of-war within your mind and on your creative canvas. Your challenge is to learn to create harmony out of all these principles in your artwork and to give your designs that unique blend that can only come from within you.

You may wonder what the creative design principles are?

The creative design principles are as follows:

1. Balance

Balance is the arrangement of different design elements, on any given piece of artwork, so that there is an equal distribution of visual weight to the whole piece.

Art that doesn't have balance can leave the viewer uneasy, almost as if there is something wrong with the piece.

2. Rhythm

Rhythm has to do with repeating elements and patterns in your designs. It also involves variations on those patterns to provide freshness, and to keep your art from becoming boring.

Repetition can help to unify a piece, or bring different parts of your artwork together. It can also provide the basic textures for your design work.

3. Dominance

Dominance refers to emphasizing certain parts of your design so that they get noticed first. Every piece of artwork needs a focal point which determines where your eyes go first. If you do not have a focal point your viewer quickly loses interest.

Having too many points of interest will also leave the viewer with no place to focus.

There are many ways to emphasize parts of your design, but the most important point is to select your focus based on your main message and, secondly, in consideration of whom your audience will be.

4. Unity

Unity is the final aspect in design, which gives a feeling that all the elements belong together. Unifying a piece can involve using various elements, including matching colors, shapes, textures, groupings, weights, typographies, or sizes.

Unity, in your art, is the overall feeling that brings your piece together, and gives it wholeness or variety, whichever you are trying to convey to the viewer.

You have to focus on these four design principles as the basics for creating your artwork.

Lacking one of these, your work will not be perfect.

No matter where your creativity takes you, if you will try to incorporate balance, rhythm, dominance, and unity into your artwork, you will be building on the solid basics of creative design.

By: Mary Williams

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